Toronto Eaton Centre shooting kills 1, injures 7
25-year-old man killed in shooting at busy mall food court
CBC News
Posted: Jun 2, 2012 6:55 PM ET
Last Updated: Jun 2, 2012 9:46 PM ET
Twitter user @whoisGwera tweeted a photograph of the scene outside of the Eaton Centre Saturday following reports of a shooting inside the busy shopping mall. (WhoisGwera/Twitter)
Toronto police have confirmed that a Saturday evening shooting in the Eaton Centre has left one man dead and seven others injured.
Const. Victor Kwong said that one victim was pronounced dead at the downtown shopping mall. Kwong listed the genders and conditions of all eight victims and the ages of three, which are as follows:
Male, 25, dead
Male, 20, critical condition
Male, 13, critical condition
Female, no age given, serious condition
Male, no age given, serious condition
Female, no age given, serious condition
Pregnant female, no age given, went into labour after being knocked down
Female, no age given, grazed by bullet
"At this time we do not have the shooter," said Kwong. Investigators have not yet released a description of the suspect, nor clarified whether they are looking for more than one person.
Kwong added that the police have received conflicting reports and are still reviewing multiple videos submitted by the public.
Charlotte Holmgren, an eye-witness who was at the Eaton Centre at the time of the shooting and heard the shots, said that the incident took place in the mall's north end food court.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford spoke to reporters outside the Eaton Centre at about 9:30 p.m. ET.
"As soon as I heard the news I got in my car," he said. "This incident tonight is absolutely terrible. We want to make sure these people are apprehended and arrested."
Ford expressed particular concern over the 13-year-old boy in critical condition.
"It really pulls on my heart strings when you hear something like that," he said, adding that he had spent the afternoon coaching football players around the boy's age.
"I really hope the young man pulls through."
Chaos erupts at the food court
Witnesses who were in the food court when the shooting began told CBC's Amanda Margison that shoppers abandoned everything from strollers to purses as they fled. Others hid beneath tables until police ordered a full evacuation.
One employee in a noodle store told Margison she heard at least five gunshots, as she and several others ran into the storage room and locked themselves inside.
The shopping centre was surrounded by emergency vehicles, as police cordoned off the section of Yonge Street between Queen and Dundas streets.
Videos posted to Twitter showed a man in a stretcher being loaded into the back of an ambulance in the aftermath of the incident, which took place at around 6:30 p.m.
A witness told CBC News that crowds of people ran from the scene with "terror" on their faces.
One witness described seeing at least one person shot, adding that she originally thought she was caught up in a shooting spree.
The Toronto Transit Commission has suspended subway service to Queen and Dundas stations. The Queen and Dundas streetcars were diverted at Church Street to the east and Bay Street to the west to avoid Yonge street.
